[Koha] questions about library program

[Rosalie Blake]

Hello Linda,
I'm sorry, I didn't seem to catch your email, but I've a few comments 
to add to Rachel's

> > We are interested in your library program and one of our people,
> > Heath Robinson, has already been in contact with you.  He will be
> > returning to the States soon, and I have some additional questions. 
> > Would you please tell me about the capability of your program to do
> > the following tasks:
> 
> I'll preface by saying I'm not a librarian, so my turn of phrase may
> not be quite right, others will jump in hopefully if I say something
> completly wrong. and perhaps translate :-)
> 
> There are lots of things that Koha doesn't do but it could do, if an
> organisiation was prepared to be the sponsor of it.
> 
> >  1) cross-referencing-i.e., can I type in a direction for someone
> > looking for "Cinema" to look under "Motion pictures"
> 
> So that would be if some one looks at the Cinema subject, it would
> suggest also looking at the motion pictures subject?
> 
> It doesn't have that functionality in the release version right now
> and I don't think it's in development.  
Yes, Rachel was right, it's not currently available
> 
> >  2) printing out barcode and spine labels
> 
> This is a project being sponsored by Horowhenua Library Trust.  We are
> going to be doing work for them on it in the next 6 weeks, so it
> should be in a public release at the end of July.
> 
> 
> >  3) doing inventory
> 
> Not sure what you mean by this.  Is it depreciation and stock control?
>  Like a list of all the books you have?  Koha certainly knows what
> books you have, but you might need to get a report written
> specifically for you.
Koha keeps track of the dates books were last issued and returned, 
and it's quite simple to run a report seeking out titles that haven't 
been seen for the last X months - which is the basis from which we 
do inventory.
> 
> >  4) printing out bibliographies of holdings, such as a list of books
> > we have on science experiments
> 
> I would say at the moment there isn't a specific report written to do
> this.  The Horowhenua Library use a product called UrbanSQL which they
> use to run a variety of reports - I couldn't say wether this is one
> that they run.
This can be done from a screen print, but if it's a long list, It's more 
efficient to do it from a report.
 
> >  5) printing out overdue notices
> 
> Koha makes a list of overdues and I think outputs them as both a file
> that can be printed and a file that can be given to a phone system
> that rings the members to tell them they have an overdue item.  
We have a system that telephones borrowers who have overdues, 
but we print notices for those borrowers we are unable to reach by 
telephone. HLT is also having developed currently a system that will 
email borrowers if they have an email address, in preference to 
telephoning.
> 
> >  6) reserving items that are currently checked out for another user
> 
> Yes - has a comprehensive reserves system - at the moment the reserves
> are put on by the librarians, but Horowhenua Library is sponsoring
> work to allow members to put on reserves themselves.

Rosalie Blake
 Horowhenua :Library Trust